This invention relates to packaging for storing and transporting food products. More particularly, the invention relates to packing having a lid and a bottom and in which the package includes one or more structures to help prevent collapse of the container as well as to help hold the food product and its toppings in position during storage and transport.
Fragile food items, such as pizza, cake, pie, pastries, bread, quiche, casserole, and the like, are often distributed in packaging to help protect such food items from the environment. A typical food package for fragile food items may be in the form of a cardboard box or in the form of a lid and container assembly that includes a removable lid, mounted onto a container bottom with a snap fit engagement. The lid and container may be separate pieces or formed from a single piece as is the case with a clam-shell (also referred to as a xe2x80x9chinge-lidxe2x80x9d) container. Such containers are widely known. These lid and container assemblies can be of a wide variety of shapes and sizes and may be used to store a wide variety of items. Due to their relatively low cost, lid and container assemblies made from polymeric materials such as polyester or polyethylene are particularly useful as packaging for foodstuffs. Various types of such assemblies have been described previously, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,256,240; 4,186,184; 5,540,342; 4,444,332; 4,408,698; 3,556,338; 5,368,178; 4,574,974; 4,334,631; and 3,592,349.
Food packages, if relatively large, may have panels that might tend to sag or otherwise distort during stacking, transport, and storage. Sagging panels is a problem, for instance, in packaging for cakes and pizzas. In the case of pizza, a distorted package panel can displace cheese and other pizza toppings, ruining the visual appeal of the pizza. In the case of cake, as another example, a distorted package can crack or smear icing and decorations. Accordingly, packaging for fragile food items often includes structural features to help prevent distortion of package panels.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,509,601 and 5,542,540 show pizza packages that include central spacers to help support the cover panels of the packages. U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,031 shows a structural spacer for a pizza package that doubles as a tool for cutting slices. The spacer in U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,609 doubles as a food server. U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,843 shows a carton formed from cardboard in which a structural spacer is an integral part of the carton material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,739 shows a food package for cake whose lid incorporates a toothed strip. The teeth project into icing of the cake being stored in the package. U.S. Pat. No. 2,106,426 shows a package in which the lid includes arched members that overlie the food item and help stiffen the package.
Conventional structural stiffeners might prevent cover panels from sagging, but other problems remain. With some designs, the package contents as a whole are relatively free to move and shift within the package. Such shifting can easily damage cakes, pizzas, pastries and other delicate food items. Even if the food item as a whole does not shift, toppings on the food item might have a tendency to shift or migrate from one position to another. For example, pizza cheese and toppings might have a tendency to migrate or shift from one slice to another.
It would be desirable, therefore, not only to structurally reinforce a package as is done via the xe2x80x9cpizza saverxe2x80x9d reinforcements, but also to provide a package in which the packaged food item is held securely in place and toppings are restricted from migrating throughout the package.
The present invention relates to a package well-suited for fragile food items that includes elements in the package lid that not only structurally reinforce the lid, but also help hold packaged items in position and restrict migration of toppings within the package. The elements may also form indentations in the packaged food item, thus providing a template for cutting the food item into individual slices.
Accordingly, in one aspect, the present invention relates to a package for storing a food item, such as pizza. The package includes a bottom on which the foot item is supported and a lid that closingly engages the bottom. The lid includes a plurality of elements that project downward from the lid toward the bottom in a pattern corresponding to an intended pattern of food slices. The ribs help to strengthen the package, hold the foot item in place inside the package, prevent migration of toppings from slice to slice, and may form indentations in the food item that serve as a template for cutting slices when the food item is removed from the container.